On Netflix, actor Rodrigo Sant’Anna wants to take Brazilian comedy to the world

The actor, comedian and screenwriter Rodrigo Sant’Anna recently switched from open television to streaming. In a new and unprecedented partnership with Netflix, he promises the platform’s first Brazilian sitcom and content in different formats – including a comedy special where he plays five characters, called I arrived.

“The streaming audience has a desire to consume popular humor,” said Sant’Anna when responding with a question: “Why not bring popular humor to new consumer platforms?” The idea makes perfect sense, since comedy is traditionally one of the most consumed genres in Brazil.

And not only that: recent numbers from Netflix confirm the interest in Brazilian comedies around the world. In 2020, the film “Everything’s Well on Christmas That Comes”, with Leando Hassum, was watched by 26 million homes in different countries.

Rodrigo emphasizes that one of the main characteristics of his work is playing with the contrasts caused by social inequality in the country, showing reality from a new perspective. “Comedy has a spontaneous verbiage. I’ve always wanted to talk about it, because I’ve lived in very different realities”, said the actor, who was born in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and uses the nickname “suburban”. “When you confront these two realities, it’s always up to you.”

He also attributes the great success of his work among audiences to his ability to create characters that are present in everyone’s lives. “My concern is always to create identification”, he told the CNN.

With the debut of your sitcom (“situation comedy”, an expression used in English to designate series that use everyday life to create humor) multi-camera scheduled for 2022, Sant’Anna says he is anxious for the public’s reaction to the next premieres. The genre is marked by successes like Friends e The Big Bang Theory, and consists of the performance of the episode in front of the audience in an auditorium, which is filmed by several cameras on the spot.

What’s different, however, between examples from abroad and the mother-in-law who gave you birth, written and performed by the comedian, is the element of spontaneity and high spirits, which characterizes Brazilian humor, according to Sant’Anna. “Comedy has a bit of the dramaturgy of the party, it’s a constant breach of expectation”, he said.

The idea for the series came at a time provoked by Rodrigo’s own mother, who lived with the actor and her husband for a few weeks in the Covid-19 pandemic. The matriarch’s expansive and uninhibited manner made him notice the contrasts between life in an upper-middle-class environment, full of little rules and social inhibitions, and that lived in the suburbs. “This spontaneity here, for me who grew up in the suburbs, people are more colorful, true, spontaneous, contrasting, with a more pastel, more sober place,” he explained.

Netflix has been a gateway to other countries and foreign audiences: the resounding success of La Casa de Papel, originated in Spain, Round 6, from South Korea, and Lupin, from France, don’t let lies. The company is now betting on comedy as one of the flagships of the propulsion of Brazilian content to foreign audiences. Success seems a natural consequence for Sant’Anna, who says that if the world is capable of absorbing Brazilian spontaneity, “we will certainly have great comedies for the world”.

For the actor, the audience’s taste for streaming is not much different from that of open television. “In streaming, we can offer popular humor with more quality, because we have the powerful infrastructure that it offers us, it’s a joining of forces”, he explained.

“I don’t think anything goes away, things are complementary”, he stated when explaining that, despite thinking that streaming is a well-established format in Brazil, he does not believe that it represents the end of the life of open TV.